From time to time, I’m asked about how it is that I’m able to manage my Internet marketing business while holding down a full time job and raising a family. Some time ago, I addressed this question in the TKA private forum. I’ve received feedback from several members about how that post was quite helpful to them so I thought that it would be worthwhile to revisit the matter today.
It’s my hope that this post will help some of you who may be struggling to find the time to spend growing your online businesses, develop work habits that will help you achieve your goals.
One thing that many of us struggle with is finding the time to sit down at our computers and write articles or promote our websites on a consistent basis. Whether you have a lot of free time or you have very little, the chances are high that you could make better use of your time if you employ a couple of strategies that I’ll talk about today.
The two main issues that I’ll be writing about today are having good work flow systems in place and developing the self-discipline to manage your time effectively.
Without good systems in place, I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near the work accomplished that I do. The tasks that many of us here at The Keyword Academy do are very similar. We do keyword research, we build websites, we write content for these websites, and we promote them through either link building or other website promotion strategies.
While the tasks are the same, some members are able to perform these tasks on a much larger scale than others. Oftentimes, it’s even the people who have less time to actually sit down at the computer who get more work accomplished.
For me, the reason I’m able to produce a massive amount of content with limited time is because I have developed efficient systems that help me to make the best use of my limited time. Many of us feel like we are working as efficiently as possible but you would be surprised how taking a good hard look at your workflow can make you even more efficient.
Because much of what we do tends to be quite repetitive, anything we can do to streamline our daily workflow will result in us being able to get more done in the same amount of time.
What I like to do is make a flow chart that shows every step that goes into performing a certain task. Then I ask myself two questions. The first is, “are all of these steps really necessary?” and the second is, “how can I perform each of these steps faster with less effort?”
When I first got started in this business, I spent a lot of time in front of my computer doing what I considered to be working. Now that I’ve been at this a while, I realize that most of my time was being spent on low value tasks that simply occupied my time and made me feel like I was working hard.
There’s no question that I was putting the time in but I hadn’t yet learned the importance of identifying low value tasks and eliminating them out of my daily workflow.
Let me give you an example of what my days were like back then.
The first thing I would do was check my many email accounts and respond to any emails that I thought I needed to respond to.Then I would go to the forums to see if anyone had replied to any of my posts and find out what the latest forum chatter was.Then I would pop in at a number of other MMO blogs and forums that I was in the habit of visiting each day.Lastly, I would spend whatever time I had remaining to write some articles for my websites as well as some articles to use for backlinking.
One day when I was feeling really frustrated because I wasn’t getting enough work done, I took a much closer look at my work patterns and asked myself some tough questions. I was putting a lot of hours in but I rarely had much to show for my time. You might say that I was lying to myself by convincing myself that I was actually working when, in reality, all I was doing was wasting time.
What I was actually doing was spending 50% or more of my efforts on tasks that wouldn’t have any impact on the growth of my business whatsoever. This is when I first sat down and analyzed my work habits to identify the low value tasks that could be culled out of my daily workflow.
After I made the list, I was blown away when I realized how inefficient I was with my time. Here are some examples of tasks that I thought were so important at the time.
Low value task: I was keeping detailed spreadsheets to record every link that I had ever built along with what I considered to be important details about each link. Solution – After several months of doing this, I had accumulated thousands of entries in my spreadsheet but I realized that not once had I ever needed that data. I immediately cut this low value task out of my workflow and I’ve never looked back.Low value task: My systems were very linear and inefficient. I would usually write an article. Then I would paste the article into Post Runner, insert the links, record information about my links, and then I would write another article. Solution – By embracing the power that comes from working in batches, I became much more efficient with my time. The amount of content I was able to produce as well as the number of backlinks I was creating went through the roof!Low value task: When I actually found time to work, I often wasted a lot of it by thinking about what it was that I would actually do that day. It wasn’t uncommon for me to run out of time before I actually got any productive work done. Solution – I learned the value of planning my work out far in advance. Once every couple of weeks, I sit down for a planning session and write down what I want to accomplish in the next two weeks. Then I make a list of tasks that I’ll need to get done if I’m going to be able to complete everything on my list. Whenever I have a day off from my 9-5 job or I finish cooking dinner and I have some free time, I don’t have to waste any time wondering what I should be doing to grow my business. I just grab my list, pick the next item on it, and get to work.
Once you’ve managed to trim the fat from your workflow and you have outlined a good plan of attack, the hard part begins. The hard part is developing the self-discipline that is needed to take action and complete your plan.
This can be quite difficult and it’s very easy to get off track and end up blowing an entire day. It’s just so tempting to pop into Google Analytics to see what your traffic is looking like. It’s very tempting to pay a visit to the forums to see what’s new and exciting to talk about. It’s quite tempting to fall into the trap of constantly checking your AdSense earnings or affiliate commissions. All of these things are low value tasks that can burn up what limited time you might have.
The way I’ve been able to develop the discipline that I’ve needed to grow my business to the point that it is at today is to constantly ask myself a couple of questions.
Is the task that I’m doing right now going to help me accomplish my two week goal?Is the task that I’m doing right now going to result in the growth of my business?
Whenever my answer to either question is no, I’m reminded to stop doing what I’m doing and get back to working my plan.
In summary, I encourage you all to do three things:
Plan your work out at least two weeks in advance.Take a close look at the things you are doing when you sit down to work and cut as many of the low value tasks as you can out of your workflow.Discipline yourself to stick to your plan and don’t let things like sharing your wisdom with everyone about the latest controversial topic in the forum get you off track.
Hopefully you found this article helpful in some way. If you did, the next step is to take action and implement the strategies that I’ve outlined for you today. Don’t cheat yourself out of the success that you are working so hard to achieve by getting stuck in the same unproductive habits that are holding you back.
Break the bad habits that are limiting you and prepare yourself to reap the rewards!
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If you would like learn more about promoting your websites via social media websites, visit socialmediaspringboard.com, where you’ll find tips from Philia on implementing social media marketing strategies. You’ll also find free tools such as free buttons, clip art, and stock photos. Philia also offers websites that are pre-made in WordPress that are available to purchase for those of you who are eager to get started making money online but don’t currently have the time or skills to build a website.
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